Corporeal Landscapes

Hosted by Homebase Gallery

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

”Corporeal Landscapes” is an exploration of space with regard to the body. Site-specific installations and performances that manipulate audience perspectives of the contemporary landscape as augmented precepts act as points of engagement, dictating how the audience moves through space. Corporeal Landscapes is produced through equal parts research, narrative devices, mysticism and experimentation.

Tracing the Former World

Before I visited the Mojave National Preserve, I was fortunate to have been exposed to years of research in this area from my studies in geology and sedimentology. My work is informed by science: how understanding the rocks, features in the environment, and our surroundings will help us make sense of the past, and by consequence, ourselves. I knew that my experiments here would be with the idea of time and a focus on how that pertains to the desert environment.

After my arrival at the Preserve, I decided that my printmaking background coupled with the use of the camera should direct my work for this residency. It would give me the opportunity to make multiples, and as such, let time manifest itself in a tangible way. Because my work is guided by my interest in memory and history, the idea of framing my interactions through the lens of the camera helped me to literally “capture” a moment in time. In addition, the process I chose to make my work, photogravure, is a very time-consuming and laborious effort that I feel reflects the conceptual integration I created, from my work to the formations and sites I witnessed in the Mojave. To interact with my emotional connection to the landscape, I altered the images as I worked, creating poetic remarks on the plate, or enhancing the way the feeling of the place is portrayed through my use of color or size. The study of the geology of the Mojave and its many amazing features has opened my eyes to the possibilities of multiple histories, experiences, and glimpses of what it means to navigate time and understand the past. Tracing the FormerWorld is my way of looking at what came before me, and connecting to it with sensitivity and analytic perseverance.

The Mojave National Preserve is a vast and particularly special set of circumstances that allows us to explore not only many former worlds, but future models of the environment, in the present tense. The storytelling of the people who have lived here, the volcanoes that have erupted here, and the sands of time that blow through here all contribute to a fascinating and eternally important place in the world of both science and art. The images in my exhibition seek to tell part of that story.

Nicole Geary, 2017

Basalt at Mojave Road

Night Dune Field

Soda Lake

A Fragment of the Former World

Boulder Brilliance

Elephant Rock

In the Joshua Trees

Meaning in the Rocks

At An Angle

Creation of this work was made possible in part by an Award from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, with funding from the City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture.

I kept looking down and finding shifting white sands all over my feet, familiar, yet feeling as though it was covering what I was looking for. Suddenly, when I wanted to give up and dunk myself in a nearby refreshing pool, I found the place.

This is when I spotted rows of stacked blocks that were being deconstructed, each being carefully jackhammered away in a uniform fashion until nothing was left, like Tetris rows decimating in place. I was immediately sure that this was the place, and simultaneously bereft that it was being destroyed. I wanted it to stand forever – as a monument to my pain, or to my history. It was being destroyed and I felt destroyed. I soon found the exact room but it was next to be imploded. I grabbed the sign that marked the entrance – a rusted letter that started to crumble in my hands as I saved it from the wreckage.

I just wanted something – some token of this place. I tried to take photos of the lamps as they were coming out of the rooms. I felt that it needed to be recognized and remembered. Someone had to know.

The works in At An Angle are a way of documenting past moments of trauma or pain, and are glimpses in the fleeting feelings that often give way to larger impressions that become memory. I wanted to build mountains out of molehills, and create a testament to the unknown suffering that people endure every day, and the ways that it can harm, change, or scar them.

Nicole Geary, 2017

At An Angle

Climate Slice

Continental Shelf

Continental Shelf

How This Memory Was Formed

Sinking Feeling

Black Hills Pot I

Black Hills Pot II

Black Hills Pot III

Central Park Pot

Cairn and Collage

I believe that the idea of landscape is not only what we see around us, but also how we see our surroundings reflected in ourselves. In my work, I study geologic history and theories in order to correlate them to our own ideas about ourselves as humans. What can be known and studied as evidence, and what, for example, is just a memory? The earth itself is full of memories, but as it ages, it erodes and metamorphoses its surface into new and different types of rock. I find this to be a beautiful yet sad process that reflects our own aging and growth.

The ideas expressed in the pieces recall some of the same inspiration I find in the study of geology and its methods: evolution, change, aging, and finally, erosion into new forms. I’m fascinated by the cyclical nature of these events and the meaning one can draw from looking closely at the earth.

Standing Rock

Erosion Hypothesis

California Cairn

Rock Pile

Breakneck Hill

Omissions

Provenance Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

The exhibition Omissions is a culmination of work created during and after my residency in Scotland in the spring of 2016. I was selected for the Hospitalfield Interdisciplinary Residency, and used the time to respond to place and the meaning I found in the rocks of the surrounding area. I traveled to particularly important geologic sites such as Siccar Point at the North Sea, and studied other ephemera as it applied to my memory of the visit, including smells, weather, and even the bruises I got in traversing the landscape. In Omissions, I make connections to the story in the rocks and the telling of our own stories: leaving out some details, coloring the narrative, and the eventual erosion from our memories. These geologic sites helped me to see our stories much like a book, layered and lithified, but altogether a glimpse that is bright and tangible one minute and grayed out the next.

In Mark Sweeney’s work with dust and sand, he often needs to know how it moves and is carried by wind. The ways that it can be traced and recorded over time also depend on the size of the grains of sand and which way the wind was blowing historically. Nicole Geary wanted to explore the representations of the wind, which are traditionally caricatures of large blowing forces. In the print they collaborated on, Nicole created a large aquatint of ripples on a dune, a characteristic pattern made by blown sand. This was sourced from photos from Mark’s field work in the Mojave Desert of southern California, and printed onto a very fine paper to give the feel of the ephemeral and delicate nature of the patterns. On top of the ripples, Nicole printed a graph known as a wind rose, which is used by scientists to track historical data of wind direction and speed at a particular location. The graph seems to be fading away, possibly due to wind erosion. Nicole hand-colored the data in the graph, taken from a weather station at Twentynine Palms in the Mojave, providing a scientific interpretation of the origin of past and present wind ripples. This print uses the desert as a way to discover the nature of wind and its effect on even the smallest particles.

Mark Sweeney and Nicole Geary met at the University of South Dakota while Nicole was pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree. Mark is a geologist and Associate Professor of Earth Science at the university, and agreed to be on Nicole’s thesis committee. Nicole studied geology and sedimentology with Mark, learned basic lab and field processes, and discovered ways of looking at the world through the eyes of a scientist.

Mark and Nicole have known one another since 2012 and the Intersecting Methods Portfolio is their first time to collaborate on a visual project combining their major areas of specialization. They communicate often about topics in geology and art, and their relationship has been a fruitful one full of questions, sharing, and insight.

The Hidden Path

The Hidden Path

"Arrivals and Departures" is an international print exchange between the Leeds Print Workshop in Leeds, England and the Southwest School of Art. The prints are 11"x11" in size with 24 prints in the edition. This print, titled "The Hidden Path," represents a rock cairn which can be used to mark trails. It has an additional element of a glow-in-the-dark screenprinted stone which is only really visible in very dark conditions. This print alludes to the fact that some decisions, or departures, can only be reached after traveling through difficult or uncertain times.

The Masterpiece Society

At the end of the world, what do little bulbous bodies do? In response to the "2012" portfolio, artists create works that tackle subjects ranging from catastrophe to rebirth. Organized by myself, juried by Shelley Gipson in the fall of 2011, and traveled during 2012. Exhibited at the 2012 MAPC Conference in Cape Girardeau, MO.

Blending In

This portfolio exchange was juried by David Wischer, Alexa Unser, and Kathryn Reeves. The invited artists were asked to respond to the theme of the portfolio, "Disguise", and in my recent arrival to South Dakota, I decided to use the idea of blending in as a kind of disguise one wears in order to acclimate. The new surroundings, culture, and small town of Vermillion had me feeling very out of place, and I often felt as though I was disguising my true feelings or thoughts in order to fit in. When I arrived home to my partner, I could remove the bunny ears and be myself.

Gulf Coast: Observed

This Lagniappe 7 exchange print was inspired by experiments with tinted oils and imagery representing the observed oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from consecutive days in May 2010. In the first proof of this print, I mixed pigments into oil and screenprinted them, layering the images atop each other. This utilization of sticky, non-archival materials allowed the interaction of oil on the paper to spread and deviate from its original placement. As the oil leak in the Gulf actually grew and changed, it became an interesting new sort of biomorphic form, which was somewhat beautiful despite its environmental effect.

The work speaks about not only environmental change and erosion, but about the possibilities of humankind to vastly change our landscape. The colors are progressively darker and mostly transparent so that the previous forms can be seen through the top layer.

Darkness and Dust

Darkness and Dust is an exploration of familiarity and connection to landscape, and more specifically, the rocks that we collect and hold on to as totems. The prints in this exhibition utilize a majority of monoprint techniques to replicate the idea of moments in time that cannot be reproduced or relived. The images are enriched by my affinity for rocks and their unique stories, including the ones that I make up for them. My study of geological formations, including the scientific and historical look at what creates the landscape we live in, is at a constant pull with my emotional response to the world around me. The sublime — whether intimate and emotional or vast and unyielding – is the concept that pushes me to create answers within my prints and sculptures. In Darkness and Dust, I pull from different sources, including my own rock collection, to create a world of stones and shapes that reverberate with the rich history of geological and sentimental experience.

Nicole Geary, 2015

Picton Fossil

We Love and Miss You

Darkness and Dust

Erosion

Protected and Alone

Fossils & Whispers

During the summer of 2015, Cat Snapp and I editioned 20 small, 3.5 x 5 inch artists books, printed and typed on Rives Lightweight and Gampi-shi. In our preparations for this collaborative project, we discussed how our overlapping interests brought about the need for a small book, full of meditative drawings and internal thoughts on nature. The ideal way to bring our voices together was the creation of a collaborative book. I remember being at first excited about mimicking the idea of a nature book or field book, yet using this project as something like a guide for the world. The collaboration with Cat allowed me to open up my personal writing to someone else for the first time and to enjoy the challenge of making my intimate thoughts more concrete.

Look/Close

This series of work aims to look more honestly at what lies beneath the surface of things. Using the idea of the microscope as a carrier or metaphor, I investigate more thoroughly the feelings and emotions of the world I live in, instead of trying to block them out or catalogue them without comment. The second word in the title, "close", is a homograph that can be read and interpreted in two ways, which I believe depends on the way I develop or relate to the specific emotion or subject of the piece. This is an open-ended body of work. For more about how it began, I have written several blog posts that go into more detail.

Collection Story

Emotional Fossil

Rapid and Often Cataclysmic

Repose

Subaqueous

Every Rock Has a Name and Holds Secrets

Sacrifice Mountain

Every Rock Has a Name and Holds Secrets

Fault Blocks I - III

A Fossil Experience

Memory Core

Transitional Narratives

A new body of work during the move from South Dakota and relocation back to Texas. These prints are reflective of the time spent separating myself from a cold yet beloved landscape to return to something more familiar.

Braided Beauty

Forever Pets

Dream Rocks

Petri Dish Memory

This Is My Secret

A Passing Fancy

Well, Well, Well

What Remains

My MFA thesis exhibit, titled "What Remains" was an exhibit of 13 prints, 3 sculptures, and 3 installations. The main body of the work consists of 12 layered prints that I refer to as field notes, as many contain text and drawing refering to an emotional response to some kind of external observation.

Through printmaking, I am able to layer plates and images, similar to the layering of my memories, leaving some things in focus while others become lost. I utilize map imagery and geologic symbols to explore the visual relationship between what I observe in my surroundings and how I assign meaning and emotion to it. My sculptural works both reveal and hide layers of history that I wish to study further – an unfortunate yet compelling effect of time upon memory.

I invite the viewer to investigate this evidence of my history, either by examining the layers, stooping to look closer, or crouching down to be at the same level as my installations.

Isopach Map

Interpretation of the Isopach Map of the Critique Wall of Drawing Room 176

Based on the data produced by the isopach map, this area shows a glimpse of the build-up of paint on the critique wall from the Drawing Room from a period of approximately 35-40 years ago to the present day. At the outermost section of the map, the paint is shallow and shows that the base of the critique wall is composed of what appears to be a cork matrix, suitable for pinning undergraduate level works in progress or assignments based on gesture or contour line. This is reinforced by the finding of a staple in the section, revealed under several layers of white paint, and perhaps left by a careless graduate student in a rush to document student work. Interestingly, this section also shows that at one time, the paint on this critique wall might also have been green. There is only a small indicator in this section; however, the next stratum also presents this green color, indicating that green paint was used, at least in this locality. It is not clear whether green was a local phenomenon or a paint color that transversed the entire landscape of the critique wall.

The uppermost layers reveal daily usage information, including scant pin marks across the surface and rough paint texture at the center of the isopach map, indicating a cost-effective paint was applied to the area again and again. This repeated layering tells much about the history of this particular critique wall; in effect, it’s rather unambiguous requirement to be reused without regard for the need of a new introduction of a cork layer into the record. By referencing the data that the map yields, it may be possible to look at the isopach map and read the depth of the deposits to come to a conclusion about the sediment source.

Dig Project Mobile Unit

"Dig Project Mobile Unit" is an installation piece with a video element that plays throughout its exhibition. The main structure is a cart on wheels that has been adapted to fit a box of sand, a light unit, and tools used in the video. Encouraging interaction with the piece, the video shows a narrative of repetitive acts of digging - methodically with a shovel at first, then furtively with hands - searching for an unknown.

Two buckets of sand, each with a wooden stake placed in it, are part of the space of the installation, used to reference the video elements and denote the place-making aspects of the piece. The video shows me setting up and demarcating an area that I have chosen to search - out of all the sand - and then setting to work. My search takes place on the banks of the flooded Missouri river, a place that felt very familiar to my tactile senses. I discover nothing, so the search continues.

Video installation with sand, found objects, tools, flagging, buckets

Dimensions variable

2011

Dig Project Mobile Unit, 2011

Secondary Sediments

This series of works responds to layering of landscape, memory, and the connection of humans to our surroundings. Forming an elaborate underpinning of our consciousness, the landscape that we choose to envelop ourselves within contributes to a greater sense of our own history and understanding.

Gnawing

The relationship between what we eat and how it makes us feel is sometimes hidden. “Gnawing” is a documentation of my attempt to eat healthier, using baby carrots as the symbol of a wholesome food. Taking small and measured bites, the video focuses on the mouth, making the action of eating seem intimate and almost sexualized. Each carrot is left with the marks of my bites, showing the intimacy of the action and the choice to eat only a little.

The viewer becomes a voyeur into the personal actions and decisions that people make every day regarding diet and food choice that is sometimes not fully weighed. While the video loops, the pile of carefully bitten and gnawed carrots becomes an object for contemplation and references my physical body, a nod to the idea that I want to effect an observable change by eating small and sensible bites of food.